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Download these notes as a PDF: Communicating Effectively with Children and Young People Final 22/04/14 Topic 9: Communicating Effectively with Children and Young People
The importance of listening to childrenThe UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (Articles 12 and 13) enshrines the child’s right to express his or her views in all matters, and the right to freedom of expression. This includes the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds. Practitioners need to ensure these rights are upheld in all matters affecting looked after children. Children experience a range of problems and worries at home, at school, with their peers and in the community (Cossar et al, 2011). Some children may talk in a way that ‘normalises’ abuse and neglect because that’s what they have experienced as normal. Alternatively, they may avoid discussing these topics because they are painful to acknowledge or because they’re concerned about the consequences of telling. Professionals and carers need to pay attention not only to what the child says, but also to what they are not saying. They also need to pay attention to how the child behaves. Listening to the child’s views will help social workers and others to build a trusting relationship (Cossar et al, 2011). It is important that children are involved in planning and decision making but in many cases this does not happen (The Care Inquiry, 2013). Around three-quarters (73%) of looked after children feel their opinions ‘always’ or ‘usually’ make a difference (OCRD, 2012). However, this means more than a quarter of children do not feel their views often count. Even if their views do not prevail, children want to be asked what they think and to feel they have been heard (The Care Inquiry, 2013). Including children in decision making can improve the quality of the decisions and lead to more stable placements (Thomas, 2009). (See the Briefing 14 on ‘Placement stability and permanence’.) Children need to be consulted at various stages of the care process, including:
Research with foster children shows they want to be heard and have their views taken into account. This includes their views on:
The importance of relationshipsRelationships should be the lens through which all work with individual children, family members and carers should be viewed (The Care Inquiry 2013:9) Looked after children and young people are vulnerable individuals. The experiences that led to placement, including neglect or maltreatment, will have resulted in separation from their birth family which, even if unsafe, was the home they knew. Developing trusting relationships is important for these children to help them build security through attachments (see Briefing 2 on Attachment theory and research). Continuity of relationships is key to helping children construct their identity and develop a strong sense of belonging. All of these are crucial for their well-being (The Care Inquiry, 2013). A consistent message is that looked after children value relationships with people who:
These relationships encompass birth parents, the wider birth family, carers and social workers (Cossar et al, 2011). It is important that practitioners, foster carers and adoptive parents are able to help children overcome difficulties that are the result of earlier adversities. For example, children who have been maltreated may have difficulty getting on with others because of their earlier experiences. Learning how to get on with others starts from birth, but for maltreated children this learning experience may have been inconsistent or disrupted. Not being able to get on with others can have a negative impact on children’s well-being and, for care leavers, their transition to adulthood (Ryan, 2012). Learning to deal with conflict and manage disagreements is crucial, and social workers and carers have an important role to play in helping children with this (Cameron and Moss, 2011). (See Briefing 5 on ‘Early childhood trauma and therapeutic parenting’.) The National Children’s Bureau has developed a relationship-based intervention to help young people learn about and practise communication and how to get on with others: How to Make Relationships Matter Challenges and facilitating effective communicationSocial workers often have to ask children questions that may be difficult or distressing for them. Children are sensitive to their social worker’s communication skills and often find it hard to talk about their worries or concerns. They do not like being bombarded by questions or to feel that their words are being ‘twisted’. Discussing sensitive issues with children is highly skilled work and requires social workers to devote sufficient time to building a trusting relationship with them (Cossar et al, 2011). There are a number of areas that practitioners need to think about at all stages of the child protection and care planning process:
Conflicts can arise when there are differences of opinion between social workers, carers and children – for example, with regard to placement, family contact, school and leisure activities. It is important to balance the child’s wishes with what is in their best interests. Where a child’s wishes are overridden, the child should be given an explanation of the reasons and acknowledgement of their concerns (Thomas, 2009). Social workers need to try to resolve any differences of opinion as unresolved differences can increase the likelihood of emergency admissions into care, which can lead to placement instability (Oliver, 2010). The research report commissioned by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner – “Don’t Make Assumptions” – report in PDF format (Cossar et al, 2011) – includes, in their own words, children’s ideas for what social workers and other professionals should do and how they should behave (see pages 83-85) is now available through the University of East Anglia. What skills do social workers need to communicate effectively with children and young people?In order to communicate effectively with children, social workers need to be confident and have a range of skills. These include:
Practitioners need to work at the child’s pace and tailor their communication style to the best way of communicating with individual children and young people. This requires time, patience, space and resources (Luckock et al, 2006). There are a number of core skills that enhance communication between children and their social worker and these can be categorised under four domains:
Practitioners need to devise ways to support and encourage children to express their views, using methods such as play, games, activity-based work and the use of creative arts. These can enable children to feel more comfortable and to express and process their feelings. Activity-based work, playing games and having fun together can also enhance the relationship between child and social worker. For young children, activities such as games, writing and drawing help to make the process more child-friendly (Thomas, 2009). To encourage young children to talk it is useful to have a bag containing a few toys, coloured pencils, paper, flash cards and worksheets with happy and sad faces (Thomas, 2009; Dalzell and Chamberlain, 2006). These methods may also be helpful when communicating with a child with a learning disability (Stone, 2001; Stalker and Connors, 2003). Older children can be reluctant to share thoughts and feelings because of they fear these private things will be written down in their file and shared with strangers (Luckock et al, 2006). A range of methods can be used to promote communication with older children, including camcorders, cameras, diaries and scrapbooks (Holland et al, 2010). Some young people find it easier to communicate while on the move – when walking together, for example, or travelling by car. Others use photographs and videos to give insight into their lives. Support from managers is also needed to facilitate good communication with children and young people. Managers need to:
The National Children’s Bureau’s training pack Communicating with Children includes a table of resources to support communication with children and young people, including specific resources for younger children, adolescents and disabled children The Children’s Commissioner’s research report Don’t Make Assumptions (2011) includes examples of activities that can be used to facilitate communication with children of all ages – see pages 25-26 See Appendix F (p170) of the final report of The Munro Review for some examples of getting feedback from children – and see also The Signs of Safety Three Houses Tool (p30), which focuses on interviewing children through their own words and drawings using a ‘house of worries’, ‘house of good things’ and ‘house of dreams’ Communicating with very young childrenCommunicating with children under the age of five brings particular challenges. In order to understand how children under five communicate practitioners need to have a good knowledge of child development and attachment (Norburn, 2013). They should also have an understanding of the impact of abuse and neglect on children’s development and how this can affect communication. Potential barriers to communicating with children under five include:
Observation of children under five is crucial, particularly for those with no verbal communication. Some examples of techniques for communicating with under-fives include:
Dealing with complaintsChildren may wish to make a complaint about their care. The majority (40 per cent) of complaints are made through a social worker, with around 14 per cent using an advocate (Morgan, 2012). Children do not always complain about their care directly to social workers or other practitioners. In 2009-10, more than 3,000 looked after children were counselled by ChildLine; this equates to one in 26 of all looked after children in the UK (NSPCC, 2011). Looked after children often contacted ChildLine because they felt they had no other trusted adults they could turn to. Many said they felt completely alone. Many looked after children counselled by ChildLine felt uncared for and at times they found it hard to accept the love and care they were given. In terms of dealing with complaints, children have made a number of recommendations, including:
Back to tabs Download these notes as a PDF: Communicating Effectively with Children and Young People Final 22/04/14 9 communicating effectively exercises and questions as a Word DOCX file 22/04/14 Methods Learning Outcome Time Required Process
Key questions for social work managersMethods Learning Outcome Time Required Process
Key questions for independent Reviewing OfficersMethods Learning Outcome Time Required Process
Back to tabs Download these notes as a PDF: Communicating Effectively with Children and Young People Final 22/04/14 Download the questions and exercises as a Word DOCX file: 9 communicating effectively exercises and questions as a Word DOCX file 22/04/14 Methods Learning Outcome Time Required Process Give each group a hand-out of the case study for Dillon and ask each group to appoint someone to feedback their ideas. Ask the group to read the case study and answer the following questions.
Case study for foster carers and adopters– DillonMethods Learning Outcome Time Required Process Ask the group to read the case study and answer the following questions.
Emotional work with young peopleMethods Learning Outcomes
Time Required 90 minutes including:
Process Introduction Foster care relies on large quantities of emotional labour. Children and young people in foster placements may never have experienced secure relationships. They greatly appreciate placements where they feel that they are accepted and where others respond warmly to them. Warm close relationships with other adults are also likely to benefit them greatly. Fostering Now: Messages from Research (Sinclair, 2005: 80) Activity set up Part 1 (30 minutes) 1. Individual work (5 minutes): ask participants to remember an experience in their life, perhaps as a child:
2. Working with a partner, ask the participants to take turns to discuss the following:
Part 2: de-briefing (30 minutes) Ask participants the questions below about how it felt to talk about their experience and to listen to their partner’s experience. Move the questions on and around the group, drawing out key points. Try to draw out learning points relating to:
Questions
Part 3: possible issues to draw out of the discussion (30 minutes)
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